There's only one way to get free parking at Pacific Bell Park five minutes after a Giants game starts -- ride a bike.

Zip past fuming drivers creeping toward the park, skirt pedestrians ignoring the crossing signals and cruise along McCovey Cove, where you'll find a cheerful valet eager to watch your bike while you watch Barry Bonds knock one into the bay.

It's so easy that the masterminds behind the service can't for the life of them understand why anyone would use internal combustion to get there.

"I guess people want it to take longer, cost more and be more frustrating," said Kash (just Kash), the pony-tailed bike lover running the valet service before yesterday's game against the Anaheim Angels.

The San Francisco Bicycle Coalition has provided the service at Pac Bell Park since the stadium opened last year. It works like a coat-check room: Hand over your trusty steed, scrawl your name on a bright green claim ticket and walk away.

"It's great," said Ted Parker of South San Francisco as he checked in the battered mountain bike he rides to about a dozen games a year. "You don't have to worry about traffic, gas, parking. It's a breeze."

From the beginning, the folks at Pac Bell Park wanted to make it easy for fans to ditch their cars, in part because the city required them to. The park's downtown location and proximity to mass transit make bicycles a logical choice, and officials just knew people would pedal to games if they had a secure place to stash their bikes.

It worked at Stanford Stadium and at the Seattle Mariners' Safeco Field, they reasoned, so why wouldn't it work here?

"Biking to the park was considered a key option, and one that could be very successful," said Alfonso Felder, the Giants' transportation program manager. "We (always) intended to provide bike parking."

Giants brass know a lot about baseball but squat about bikes, so they hired the pros at the Bicycle Coalition to run the show.

The coalition has provided valet service at street fairs, concerts and other civic events for the past decade and will soon launch it at the Embarcadero BART station and the CalTrain station at Fourth and Townsend streets. It eagerly added Pac Bell Park to the roster. The way the coalition sees it, anything that gets people to change their fuelish ways is a good thing.

"The more people see people on bikes, the more people will ride bikes," Kash said.

The program has, by all accounts, been a raging success. As many as 100 bicycles fill the giant storeroom under Section 101 during each game, and the service has enjoyed a steady rise in popularity, Kash said.

Security is top-notch, and the coalition boasts that no one has ever made off with a bike since they started offering the service. However, one cyclist left last year's X-Games with a different bike than the one he came with.

"I had to chase (him) all the way to Redwood City to get it back," Kash said. .

ANYTHING WITH WHEELS

Perhaps the greatest testament to the program's security is the fact that people regularly fork over bikes worth more than a used Honda.

"I was nervous at first because it's a $3,000 bike," Scott Forman of Pacifica said as Kash took his flashy racer. "But it's no problem as long as you don't lose the claim slip."

Sprinkled among the bikes are the occasional scooter, stroller and in-line skates. If it's human-powered and has wheels, Kash will park it. He's even been known to take the occasional kayak.

"They're the bicycles of the ocean," he said with a shrug.

Kash opens up shop about 90 minutes before the first pitch and sticks around until the last bike rolls away. Sometimes that means waiting until the wee hours, as was the case after a recent 18-inning marathon.

"The bars closed before I did," Kash said.

Tips are accepted, even encouraged, but not required.

"You gotta tip," one cyclist said, stuffing two crumpled George Washingtons into a jar. "I've seen people stiff 'em. That's not cool."

The way Kash sees it, those who can afford to tip pay for those who can't. A buck or two is typical.

"Every once in a while, someone walks up, says 'You're doing a great job' and slips me a 20," he said with a smile. "That makes me feel we do good work."